![]() ![]() With the laboratory discovery of the bacterium that causes syphilis, more advancement followed. Before this, doctors diagnosed through symptoms only - and you might remember, these symptoms can vary WIDELY and look like many different ailments resulting in Syphilis’ nickname through the centuries, “The Great Imitator.” No wonder it is so hard to find conclusive medical records of diagnoses of syphilis. Sheila Lukehart: The agent of syphilis was first identified in 1905.Įmi Ferguson: That agent being the bacterium Treponema Pallidum. Sheila Lukehart, our resident syphilis expert. Sheila Lukehart: The idea that there was actually an infectious agent was very, very new, until the end of the 19th century,Įmi Ferguson: That's Dr. The turn of the century marked a turning point both for Joplin's life and career, and also for scientific progress in syphilis treatment. He published his first composition in 1895, a song called "Please Say You Will." In 1899 he published his first ragtime pieces, the "Original Rags." Not long after, he published the Maple Leaf Rag, which would go on to sell about half a million copies in its first decade of sales alone. But again, we just really don't have any way of knowing exactly when he would have contracted syphilis, because we generally know so little about Joplin’s life. While we know that Joplin died of syphilis, figuring out the timeline for its progression is much harder.Įd Berlin: we don't know exactly when he contracted the disease, the primary infection could have been as early as 1894.Įmi Ferguson: This would have been five years before he would have even published his first rags, so it’s possible that most or all of his composition career overlapped with his having syphilis. ![]() For one, he knew he had syphilis and he talked about it.Įmi Ferguson: He told fellow composer and pianist Eubie Blake that he had syphilis. Contracting SyphilisĮmi Ferguson: Unlike our previous composer case studies, Franz Schubert, and Bedrich Smetana, we know that Scott Joplin DEFINITELY had syphilis. The quartet got great reviews.Įd Berlin: He was apparently a very fine singer.Įmi Ferguson: The Texas Medley Quartet toured the midwest, and there are also newspaper records of performances by them in Syracuse and Boston. Music was really important to the Joplin family – they encouraged a young Scott and his siblings.īy the 1890s, early in his musical career, Scott Joplin was part of a singing quartet, called the Texas Medley Quartet.Įmi Ferguson: He would have been in his early twenties at the time, singing "second tenor," which means Joplin actually would have sang the main melody. So we really know too little about Scott Joplin.Įmi Ferguson: We don't know Joplin's exact birthday, but we know he was likely born in the latter half of 1867, two years after the end of the Civil War. And so, you know, the, the stories change memories, memories are difficult. Įd Berlin: And when, uh, people who knew him were interviewed, they were talking 50, 60, 70 years after they knew him. One of the difficulties of being a Joplin scholar is that there's not much primary source material to work with, and if you’ve been listening to our previous episodes, this may sound familiar), There's only one surviving letter written by Joplin.Įd Berlin: And that was written to the copyright office.Įmi Ferguson: That was for his first opera, A Guest of Honor. So that newspapers for the most part did not write about him.Įmi Ferguson: That's Joplin biographer and ragtime scholar, Ed Berlin. So you might know Joplin’s music, but there is a lot we don't know about Scott Joplin the person.Įd Berlin: We know too little about Scott Joplin probably because of race. Clip of the Maple Leaf RagĮmi Ferguson: That's Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag, arguably his most famous composition. There's another piece of his that you probably know as well. Like this one… Clip of the EntertainerĮmi Ferguson: The Entertainer, which you definitely know if you've ever heard an ice-cream truck driving by. ![]() Here's Emi.Įmi Ferguson: Even if you don't know anything about Scott Joplin, you have almost certainly heard one or two pieces by him. To wrap things up, she looks at a composer who spent his last years in New York City, and is buried in Queens. I'm John Schaefer, and today is the final episode of flute player Emi Ferguson's miniseries, This Composer is Sick, exploring the impact of syphilis on the lives of classical composers. John Schaefer: You're listening to the Artist Propulsion Lab, WQXR's incubator for emerging and mid-career artists. This Composer is Sick, Ep4 - Scott Joplin Didn't Die of Opera Failure
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